Situation not conducive for withdrawl of forces: PKM

Chandigarh, Nov 28 (UNI) Panun Kashmir Movement (PKM) President Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo today said the situation in Kashmir does not warrant withdrawl of security forces from the valley.

" No soverign nation can decide on the withdrawl of forces (from insurgency-ridden Kasmir) following the demand made by some political party", he told newsmen after a PKM-sponsored 'Sankalp Yatra' from Kashmir reached here today.

He said there was no change in the ground realities so far as militancy in Kashmir was concerned and thus the situation was not conducive for withdrawl of security forces from there, adding it was a matter where only the Government of India could take a decison.

Reiterating the PKM demand of "Homeland" in Kashmir with union territory status, Mr Chrungoo said "we want to live in Kashmir as indigenous people in the north and east of River Jhelum".

Highlighting the plight of Kashmiri pandits and other minority people who fled from the valley due to terrorism, the PKM leader held the Central Government responsible for a major "policy failure" in Kashmir which made the situation reach such stage.

The Sankalap Yatra, a political pilgrimage, which started from Srinagar on November 11 last, is scheduled to conclude at Jammu on December 28 after covering nine states and two union territories.

The purpsoe of the yatra is to focus on Kashmir issue and terrorism; exodus and displacement of Kashmiri pandits and other minorities from Kashmir and their present status; human rights situation of minorities in Jammu and Kashmir and demand of homeland in Kashmir.

The yatra will go to birth places and work places of Mahatma Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad, Dr B R Ambedkar and Dr K B Hedgewar at Nagpur and Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak at Pune.

The Yatra had already covered Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab and visited Harminder Sahib and Durgiana Peeth at Amritsar.

UNI